Atlanta police are continuing their investigation of two recent armed carjackings at a popular southeast Atlanta shopping center within a four-day period.

The carjackings occurred at the Edgewood Retail District at the corner of Caroline Street and Moreland Avenue.

According to police reports, the first carjacking took place Thursday night when a woman exiting her 2008 Ford Focus in the parking lot of Ross Dress for Less was approached by three men who had been hiding behind a wall neighboring the store.

"When the victim exited her vehicle to go into the trunk, one suspect, armed with a black pistol, approached her and demanded her car keys and cell phone," said a police report. "When the woman tried to get back into her car, the gunman told her, 'give me your car' and 'give me your phone,' then hit her in the face with his fist and pulled her out of the car."

The suspects got into the car and fled south on Moreland Avenue. The woman sustained a minor cut to her lower lip.

The second carjacking was early Sunday morning and involved an employee of the Target store in the same shopping center.

The employee was arriving for work around 4 a.m., when he was also carjacked at gunpoint.The victim was driving his 2000 Saturn LS when the gunman, armed with a silver revolver, ordered him out of his car, pointed the gun at him and told him to "walk off," according to police.

The Target store at the shopping center has stepped up its own security efforts in the wake of the incidents, as of Monday.